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Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Preservation and Proposition

Our mission is to document the pivotal Second Amendment events that occurred in Frontier Mercersburg, and its environs, and to heighten awareness of the importance of these events in the founding of our Nation.

We are dedicated to the preservation of the place where the Second Amendment was "born" and to the proposition that the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") is the keystone of our Liberty and the Republic.

Monday, August 11, 2014

With her cropped silver hair, white orthopedic slip-on shoes and a silver cross and a Virgin Mary pendant around her neck, you'd never suspect that Pat Bagley is packing heat.

But nestled in a zippered pocket of her black leather purse, Bagley's matte-black Ruger .38 pistol goes with her almost everywhere. It's loaded with a five-cartridge clip of hollow-point bullets, the ones capable of tearing huge chunks out of whatever they hit, especially flesh.

"If I need more than that, I figure I'm already dead. But those things will tear you up," says Bagley, almost 70 years old, a retired nurse, grandmother of four and known to nearly everyone as "Miss Pat."

Walking out of her house, she unzips her bag and keeps her hand on the butt of the gun, ready to draw. She has to remind herself to leave it behind when she goes into places where guns are prohibited -- federal buildings like the post office and the Tivoli Theatre, where she volunteers as an usher.

"I even take it into church," she says. "My pastor knows, and he says it's fine."

Rising numbers

American men are still three times more likely than women to own guns, according to the Pew Research Center. But the scale is slowly tilting, at least in Tennessee. In 2010, 24,450 women were issued carry permits, according to the Tennessee Department of Safety. By 2013, 58,833 got them. For both men and women in Tennessee, the average age for getting a carry permit hovers between 46 and 60.

Georgia's exact numbers of men versus women are harder to pin down, because the state doesn't keep such records readily available. But with a total of about 600,000 concealed carry permits issued, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, it has the third-highest number of permits overall, lagging behind Florida's 1.2 million and Pennsylvania's 872,000.

Alabama's male-versus-female numbers are also unavailable, but the state has issued about 350,000 concealed-carry permits total, according to the Alabama Sheriff's Association.

Overall, the number of women shooting for sport has jumped in the last decade. From 2001 to 2011, 51.8 percent more women reported participating in target shooting and 41.8 percent more for hunting, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

For Bagley, getting a gun was a matter of safety, a reason echoed by other female gun owners. She'd never touched a gun until four years ago, when someone broke into her car in a Cracker Barrel parking lot as she ate lunch inside. Now she holds a carry permit and visits a shooting range regularly for target practice.

"I can tell when I haven't gone to a range in a while, my shots are all off," she says. "Just because you get a gun doesn't mean you're suddenly Annie Oakley."

In a pocket of her rocking chair recliner that sits in view of the TV in her den -- filled with pictures and shrines of the Virgin Mary, porcelain dolls and framed pictures of her family -- Bagley has tucked another gun, a tiny antique revolver, which is easier on her arthritis than semi-automatics, which require a slide reload.

"It's just a little thing. It can't do much damage," she says. "But if someone hears that 'click' [when I pull the safety off], they'll know I'm not going down without a fight."

Like-minded

None of Bagley's friends carry guns, so for camaraderie, she goes to monthly meetings of the Locked and Loaded Ladies gun club. Held at Carter Shooting Supply in Harrison and led by store owner Kristi Manning, the all-female group started in September 2013 and is 64 members strong.

It's a chapter of the national Well-Armed Woman, whose tagline is "Where the feminine and firearms meet." The group gets together for monthly gun cleaning parties, to hear speakers on gun safety and politics, to gab about their guns and -- most importantly -- to shoot on the shooting range.

With Locked and Loaded Ladies, guns are fun. For a room full of armed people, the mood is lighthearted. Ladies know each other's husbands' names, crack jokes and try out each others' firearms.

Manning says the non-competitive vibe is a main component of the importance of the group group.

For the most part, the ladies of Locked and Loaded seem to share the same politics as their male gun-toting counterparts -- they love the Second Amendment and defend it vociferously.

"I ain't giving 'em up by no means," Manning says at a recent meeting.

"I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried out by six," says another woman.

"You know what gun control is? Being able to hit your target," another two women say almost in unison.

The Facebook page for Chattanooga Gun Girls, another local women's gun group, is filled with pro-gun memes centered around women.

"You can tell a lot about a woman by her hands -- if she's holding a gun, you should either run or marry her," reads one post.

"This is my rape whistle ... because I shouldn't have to blow anything for a rapist," reads another.

Female focused

Female gun ownership isn't an entirely new thing, since gun companies began courting women buyers in the '80s. Smith & Wesson introduced its LadySmith line of revolvers in 1989. But the current growth is distinct in its appeal to women. Female gun culture is playful and irreverent, feminine and tough.

The National Rifle Association has recently ramped up its efforts to attract female shooters with programs, local networks, webinars and a slick video series on its website featuring women shooters. Former Alaskan governor, 2008 vice presidential candidate and fervent hunter Sarah Palin has been a vocal proponent of gun rights.

A recent cover of Personal & Home Defense magazine shows a 30-ish woman, nicely coiffed, with a black leather handbag on her shoulder. A mall scene is in the background. With one arm she holds a little girl protectively; in the other, she confidently points a gun at an unseen attacker.

Gunmakers are offering handguns in pink and purple, with flower decals and snakeskin handles. Companies like Sweet Shot -- a women's shooting accessory company whose motto is "Look cute while you shoot!" -- sell leopard-print gloves and ear muffs, as well as jewelry made from bullets.

The Thunderwear holster lets ladies stash guns in their undergarment areas. There are sticky holsters that heat up and meld to skin so they'll rest comfortably in a waistband. Belly bands and garter bands conceal a gun and are adorned with brightly colored, corset-style lace. The Flashband holster nestles on the underwire of a bra, and there is an array of purses with specially designed pouches for carrying a concealed weapon.

"If you're like me, you have what I call 'purse dirt,'" says Aimee Gregory, who co-owns Shooters Depot, which has locations in Chattanooga and Ringgold, Ga. "So putting your gun in a separate pouch is a better option. And I don't need anything to make my hips look any wider, so I don't carry on my belt."

Gregory started Chattanooga Gun Girls in June and already has 70 people signed up and a full roster of speakers scheduled for coming months. Like Locked and Loaded Ladies, the group aims to educate, equip and provide support for women with guns.

Even Gregory, who grew up shooting guns, says she used to feel uncomfortable going into gun stores with an all-male staff because they made her feel like she didn't know anything.

Most of the women she knows who have guns are buying them for protection.

"A lot of women are waiting longer to get married, so they're living alone," she explains. "We have college girls who live out of the dorms and want to feel protected. The crime rate is not going down, and it's empowering to be able to protect your family yourself, rather than wait for a man."

Women also tend to score better than men in the classes that must be taken to earn a carry permit, she says, because they listen more closely to the instructor than the guys and naturally have good hand-eye coordination.

Gregory says she also sees more and more women over 60 showing up at the store to get a permit. Widowed, divorced or single by choice, they're suddenly seeing themselves as targets for crime and want to protect themselves.

"You would be shocked to know the number of little old, white-gloved ladies sitting in the front row at church who are packing .357's," she says. "I had an 85-year-old lady come in last week looking for a pistol for each of her nightstands. And she said she was a good shot, too."

Trevor Haines has taught martial arts-based self-defense to women since 1986 and owns Dojo Chattanooga on the North Shore. He's not against guns -- he has a carry permit and shoots at a range once a week -- but he cautions women not to rely on their weapon alone. Instead, he advises women to use bodily self-defense practices and add a gun to the mix if they want.

"Your fist is going to be your least-deadly weapon, but it's always on you," he says. "It's not like a pistol, where you pull the trigger and there's the chance someone is going to die."

During a lecture he gave in California, a woman in the crowd touted her mace spray as her sole form of self-defense. He told her to get the spray out of her purse and, in the meantime, he climbed over a table, snatched her purse and threw it on the floor -- all while she was fumbling to grab the spray bottle. That situation is not unlike one in which the victim has relied too heavily on their gun to save them, he says.

"With any weapon you have to recognize its limitations," he says. "If you become fixated on that weapon, you're going to lose sight and flexibility if the situation arises."

Reasons for packing

The members of Locked and Loaded Ladies vary in age, experience and their reasons for joining. Erica Albers, 40, is a certified police officer and a founding member of the group. She's also the daughter of a by-the-book cop who gave his two daughters BB guns for Christmas when they were young, but wouldn't let them shoot them until they'd memorized the safety rules on the box.

Marilyn Spickard, a sixth-grade teacher at Soddy-Daisy Middle School, got involved as a fun activity to do with her sister. As she's gotten older, she's started to feel more like a target for crime. Entering her 23rd year of teaching, she also wanted to be prepared to carry in case she was asked to be armed in the classroom.

"I'm the first line of defense between a bad guy and those kids," says Spickard. "I don't know if I'll be asked or if I would volunteer, but I want to be prepared."

Miranda Young, one of the younger members of the group at 34, joined in the midst of dealing with a stalker. That situation has been resolved, but Young still carries. Now she has memorized the gun laws of Tennessee as well as most every other state -- a necessity since she has made cross-country road trips on her motorcycle and carries her gun nearly everywhere. She also designed the logo for Locked and Loaded T-shirts, which feature feminine silhouettes holding guns on the front and a pockmarked target on the back, under which it says: "Group therapy."

When Traci Whitcraft's husband got a gun, she was terrified at first. Now she's taught all five of her daughters, whose ages range from 10 to 18, how to shoot.

"It's just fun to blow stuff up!" she says.

Cheri Meredith's husband works in offshore oil drilling and is gone for months at a time; the pistol in her bedside table makes her sleep a lot better.

"I think it builds confidence in a woman," she says. "You don't have to be afraid of every little bump in the night.

"I always thought if you touch a handgun it's just going to go off," she says. "Now I see it as just another tool, like a lawnmower or a blender."

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Save the Birthplace of Our Gun Rights - Donate Here

It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.